In the U.S. Army, Casey Thoreen is just a 30-year-old captain. Around here, he's known as the "King of Maiwand" district testimony to the fact that without the young captain and a fat international wallet, local government here as in much of the insurgency-ravaged south could not function at all.
Posted by: ed ||
05/01/2010 15:31 ||
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The Pakistani Army offensive against the Taliban has had some interesting side effects. For one thing, Afghan refugees (from the 1980s and 90s) have suddenly changed their minds about living in Pakistan. In the last month, over 22,000 of these Afghans have returned to Afghanistan.
Posted by: ed ||
05/01/2010 14:10 ||
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Seriously Secretary Gates if our soldiers can put on a show this FABulous while still kicking ass so hard that the beards are falling off of the Taliban, I think we can let a few gay men and lesbian women serve our nation from out of the closet.
Tee hee hee! This video needs to make the rounds among the Taliban. That ought to give them something to think about!
Here's the NotSFW official explicit Lady Gaga video and here is the SFW video for research and comparison purposes so you know what all the fuss is about. :-|
There wasn't any embedding code, so you'll be taken directly to the youtube page.
#4
Of course there is no mention of the risky behaviors of the "gay" community. Would monthly or quarterly tests for AIDS and STD's be required for that subset of the military? Or all of the military so as to not discriminate?
There are valid reasons they are not used as blood donors; people have died before that was learned and enforced.
#5
On seeing this military version, were I in charge of that unit, I would ask by CSM to contact the USO and get some entertainment out to the soldiers, stat. Those guys look bored.
Prince Harry could fly Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan, it emerged yesterday, after it was announced that he had passed his army pilot's course.
Lieutenant Wales, as he is known in the Army Air Corps, has been told that he is good enough to fly either the Apache or the Lynx, a battlefield utility helicopter. He has until next week to decide which he prefers.
The Apache, one of the most fearsomely armed helicopters in the world, was designed to hunt and destroy tanks. In Afghanistan its ability to take out targets up to two miles away has made it a vital asset in the fight against the Taleban. It is equipped with 16 Hellfire missiles, 76 high-velocity tungsten rockets, four air-to-air missiles and a chain-gun with 1,200 rounds of 30mm ammunition.
Prince Harry's success has greatly enhanced his chances of returning to the front line, whichever choice he makes. A military source said that both aircraft were heavily involved in Afghanistan. Anybody involved with flying either of them stands a bloody good chance of being deployed to Afghanistan.'
A St James's Palace spokesman said: Prince Harry is very pleased. He has worked very hard for the last year and a half. He is going to mull it over it is a big decision for him.'
The Prince, 25, served in Helmand province as a forward air controller directing airstrikes for ten weeks in 2007-08 and has made no secret of his wish to return. He has made no secret of his wish to return, and in January last year switched to start flying training with the Army Air Corps in what he openly acknowledged was an attempt to get back to Afghanistan. Speaking last June about his flying training, he said: I'm really enjoying it and, as everyone knows, it's my easiest way of getting back to the front line. Maybe safer, maybe not, I don't know.'
He added: To get out to Afghanistan again would be fantastic and my best chance is to do it from a helicopter.'
In the early days of his course the Prince, whose uncle the Duke of York flew a Sea King helicopter during the Falklands conflict, would not have considered himself potential Apache material. However it seems that he has done well enough to make the grade, although whether that will be his final decision is another matter.
British forces in Helmand have employed the Apache to hunt and kill Taliban fighters, gather intelligence and provide cover for larger Chinook helicopters transporting troops and supplies.
The Lynx, which in its upgraded form is able to operate all year round in Afghanistan instead of just the cooler months, is mainly used for convoy protection and reconnaissance, as well as occasionally carrying small numbers of troops. The Mark 9A is armed with a .50 calibre heavy machine gun.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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Good for him. He sounds like a good kid.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
05/01/2010 11:04 Comments ||
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So it seems. Apparently this apple fell from the tree and took off running.
SHANGHAI, April 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Chinese President Hu Jintao had "serious discussions" Friday on last month's deadly sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, which officials said laid the groundwork for cooperation for on a joint response to the tragedy as suspicions grow against North Korea.
"I offer condolences and consolation to the victims of the Cheonan and their families," Hu said in his summit with President Lee Myung-bak in Shanghai. It was the first time that the Chinese leader has commented publicly on the March 26 incident that occurred near the inter-Korean sea border. He made the remarks during the first several minutes that were opened to the press.
South Korea's presidential officials said the Cheonan issue was one of the main agenda in the closed-door summit that lasted about half an hour, along with Seoul-Beijing bilateral relations such as ways to lower trade barriers and further develop their "strategic cooperative partnership."
"The two leaders had serious discussions on the Cheonan incident," Lee Dong-kwan, senior secretary for public affairs at Cheong Wa Dae, told reporters. "Today's South Korea-China summit was the (fastening of the) first button for formal consultations (between the two sides on the matter)." Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Premier Wen Jiabao are scheduled to visit South Korea next month for separate meetings also involving Japan, he pointed out.
The Chinese leader also noted South Korea's "scientific and objective" investigation into the case that is still underway, the secretary added.
The South Korean president told Hu that "all of South Korea's 50 million people take the incident seriously," briefing him on the results of a preliminary probe that indicate the 1,200-ton patrol ship was broken in half and sank from a "non-contact" explosion. The secretary said the president deliberately used the expression of "50 million people" to underscore the depth of the nation's sadness and furor over the naval tragedy. Forty-six of the 104 sailors aboard the Cheonan were killed.
"President Lee promised to first inform China of the results of the investigation once it is completed and appealed for its interest and cooperation," the secretary said.
China's approach toward the naval disaster is being closely monitored as suspicions grow that North Korea may be behind it. Seoul is tasked with coordinating a response with Beijing, Pyongyang's foremost ally and benefactor.
South Korea's Navy Chief of Staff Kim Sung-chan said in a funeral for the fallen sailors Thursday that Seoul "cannot and must not forgive or forget" those responsible for Cheonan's sinking, remarks interpreted as a vow of retribution.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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As per the CHEONAN, SOUTH KOREA > is repor insisting to Beijing that CHINA make NORTH KOREA = KIMMIE realize that ANY CHIN-LED MIL DEFENSE + GUARANTY, ETC, AGZ EXTRNAL ATTACK is NOT = NO LONGER A NORTH KOREAN NATURAL BIRTHRIGHT.
* WMF > SOUTH KOREA: FAILURE BY CHINA TO PUNISH NORTH KOREA ON THE CHEONAN ATTACK, SINKING MAY DAMAGE/PUNISH BEIJING-SEOUL RELATIONS FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS.
* SAME > CHINA HAS BEEN BETRAYED BY PYONGYANG'S ORDERED ATTACK ON THE SOUTH KOREAN NAVAL SHIP CHEONAN.
Millions of North Koreans listen to dozens of foreign radio broadcasts transmitted by Japan, South Korea and the U.S., and the number is growing. This is according to Peter Beck, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, who said that it is quite a phenomenon given that Pyongyang authorities distribute only radios with fixed dials, block foreign broadcasts, and imprison citizens caught listening to foreign radio for as long as 10 years.
Beck, who is also a Pantech research fellow at Stanford University's Asia Pacific Research Center, said that two of the most popular stations are Voice of America which broadcasts news from the U.S. and around the world, and Radio Free Asia which focuses on the communist regime and the lives of defectors in the South.
Beck added that the North Korean regime is losing its monopoly on the control of information and outside broadcasts are undermining loyalty to the leadership.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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A group of Republican senators wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday, urging them to deny Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entry into the U.S. next week.
14 Senate Republicans wrote Clinton to ask that the controversial Iranian leader be prevented from attending a United Nations conference on nuclear nonproliferation next week in New York City. The senators, led by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), condemned the Obama administration's likely decision to permit Ahmadinejad to attend the conference, as he and other world leaders have previously been permitted to do.
"This is preposterous, and allowing it to happen will make a mockery of the effort to stop the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist groups," the senators said. "There is simply no compelling reason for Ahmadinejad to be allowed to enter the United States."
The Republicans outlined U.S. classifications of the Iranian government and statutory history to ask Clinton to deny a visa to the leader.
The letter was signed by Cornyn, as well as Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), David Vitter (R-La.), John Ensign (R-Nev.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Bob Bennett (R-Utah), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), George LeMieux (R-Fla.), and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
For a few precious moments Friday, the single-minded, everyone-for-themselves rush at Midway Airport seemed to stop to make way for one man.
Strangers waiting in the terminal got up out of their seats. They applauded and whistled, as U.S. Army Master Sgt. Pedro Medina walked stiffly along the concourse.
They were astonishing steps for a man whose neck, pelvis and foot were crushed when a hangar collapsed on him during a mortar attack in Afghanistan in May 2009. Medina, an Army reservist and a Chicago cop, wasn't supposed to walk again.
He did just that Friday, even leaving his cane behind at the veterans hospital in Tampa, Fla., where he is learning to use his limbs again.
"It's great to be back home," said a smiling Medina, surrounded by family, fellow reservists, Chicago Police officers and the leather-clad Patriot Guard Riders, a motorcycle-riding veterans appreciation group.
Everyone wanted to know what Medina was looking forward to after being gone -- aside from a short visit home last December -- since his deployment to Afghanistan in August 2008.
"Everything that's Chicago -- be it a hot dog, pizza, Al's [Italian] Beef," he said.
One year ago, Medina was out in the open on his military base in mountainous southeastern Afghanistan when mortar rounds exploded around him. He took cover inside a building. A Chinook helicopter was taking off to escape the attack, and a downdraft from the rotors collapsed the building on top of Medina. Doctors later told Medina he was a quadriplegic.
"One day, I started tapping my middle finger on my right hand on the bed at Walter Reed [Army Medical Center in Washington]," Medina told the Chicago Sun-Times last November. "Now, I can make a full fist and extend my hands."
Medina eventually willed himself out of a wheelchair and began walking with a cane.
Medina said he's eager to return to police work, once he's done with rehab later this summer. Before his deployment, he was an officer in the Northwest Side Humboldt Park neighborhood.
"Anything I can do for the department, that's what I want to be able to do," he said.
Medina returned to the Northwest Side on Friday -- to the family home in Logan Square. Police shut down a block of North Springfield to accommodate Medina's entourage. Dozens of people came out onto their porches to see what the fuss was all about.
Miguelina Mercado, Medina's grandmother, was there waiting for him. She pressed him close to her and asked him what he'd like to eat.
"Whatever he asks me to do, I will make it for him," the woman said, beaming.
THE Australian man arrested as part of a growing al-Qaeda probe in New York is a devoted follower of fundamentalist Islam, sources say. New York-based Sabirhan "Bruce" "Tareq" Hasanoff, who has both Australian and US citizenship, was one of two men charged with conspiring to provide material support al Qaeda in the US yesterday.
He is accused of lending the extremist network his computer expertise and handling huge sums of money for the group in New York.
Hasanoff's co-accused, Wesam El-Hanafi, 33, allegedly travelled to terror hotbed Yemen to receive orders, later purchasing seven digital Casio watches online. Such watches are often used as timers to set off terrorist bombs.
He and Hasanoff were arrested overseas and flown to the US ahead their court appearance in Virginia yesterday. They each faced one count of conspiring with al Qaeda between November 2007 and March 2010 and face up to 15 years in jail.
Hasanoff, 34, allegedly received $US50,000 ($A66,000) from an al Qaeda associate in 2007 and later discussed joining the radical terror cell, court documents show.
The tenant who occupies his townhouse in Flushing, Queens, described Hasanoff as a polite family man who, like his wife Wahida, is heavily into fundamentalist Islam.
"She's very religious and her husband is too," Fahima Rustam told News Limited at the neat split-level home yesterday. "I'm scared - he was very nice, very quiet person."
The FBI interviewed Ms Rustam early one morning about six months ago, digging for details about her landlord.
Hasanoff has two children - a boy aged five and a four-year-old daughter.
Two days ago, Ms Rustam got a phone call from Hasanoff's sister who asked her to start writing her rent checks in the sister's name, rather than her brother's.
"She didn't say why," said Ms Rustam, who has rented the home for the past four years.
NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly played down fears of a looming terror attack, saying there was no evidence of a specific plot.
"This was part of an on-going investigation into material support for al-Qaeda," NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly said. "The suspects undertook certain tasks and chores for al-Qaeda while in New York."
Hasanoff appears to have deep roots in the US - he speaks with an American accent, purchased the Queens home in 2001 and his siblings and father live in Brooklyn.
The case is shaping as one with strong connections to impoverished Arab nation Yemen, which is harbouring the radical US cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Al-Awlaki, who has not been named in the case, has preached to a long list of terrorists and last February delivered a sermon by phone link to Sydney's Lakemba mosque.
CNN last night reported that Hasanoff and El-Hanafi were arrested in a country that "did not want to be identified as being helpful in any way to the US".
US court documents do not explain the extent of Mr Hasanoff's links with Australia and government officials in the US were unaware of his arrest last night.
How to increase Pakistan's honour
Daily Nawa-e-Waqt editorialised that Pakistani citizens felt their honour increase (viqar mein izafa) on hearing that a delegation of nine Pakistani senators from the Tribal Areas (FATA) refused to continue their official visit in the United States after they were asked to submit to body scan (hattak amez amal). Similarly two Muslim ladies coming to Pakistan increased national honour by cancelling their journey from the UK after refusing to be scanned at the airport. The Americans have apologised for the scan but said that FATA senators could not be exempted.
Rivers will flow with blood!
Daily Jinnah reported that the UN-banned Jamaatud Dawa held a massive procession on Lahore's Mall Road to condemn India for stealing Pakistan's water. Famous leader Hafiz Said warned India (bharatio sunn lo!) that he will win Kashmir from India together with the dams India was building on Pakistani rivers. He said the rivers will run with Hindu blood.
Indus Treaty an unhappy marriage
Quoted in Jang Indus Water Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah said in Lahore that Indus Water Treaty between Pakistan and India was an unhappy marriage over the years. He said India was preparing to build 25 to 20 dams on the rivers given to Pakistan. Although the dams were allowed by the treaty India should act on the spirit of the Treaty and agree to amend the amount of water given by the treaty to India from three Pakistani rivers. The reason was that the water flow in these rivers had decreased.
Blow up the dams!
Quoted in Jinnah chief editor and heads of journalists' organisation Khushnood Ali Khan told a meeting that the Indian dams that stole Pakistani water should be blown up with bombs. He said if India did not desist from stealing water then the philosophy of Hafiz Said should be acted upon because that was the only language India understood.
Talibanisation defined
Writing in Jang Saleem Safi stated that Talibanisation is often equated with the Taliban but it was actually rooted in the state institutions and their Indian and Afghan policies, politics of the religious parties and the hawkish anchors of the TV channels.
Jamaat has the wrong leader
According to survey published in Jinnah Jamaat Islami rank and file are unhappy with the current chief Syed Munawwar Hasan and would like to see Liaquat Baloch to be their leader. According to them former chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad too would like to have Baloch as the Jamaat leader. After a year Munawwar has not won the acceptance of the party supporters and he is not likely to win his place the second time.
Courting a terrorist party
Reported in Express PMLN leaders were courting the banned terrorist party Sipah Sahaba in South Punjab to win in elections. PMLN Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah was seen together with the Sipah leader Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi who claimed that all politicians who won their seats in South Punjab had approached Sipah for help. One federal minister of state had invited Ludhianvi to his house.
Ban on lewd gestures
Reported in daily Pakistan Lahore Home Department sent a notice of ban to actress Saima Khan for making lewd gestures on stage while acting in a play. The play was titled Ishq, Muhabbat aur Mehngai (High Passion amid High Prices). The Home Department also issued a notice of warning to Nida Chaudhry for making similar gestures.
I would have slapped him!
Quoted in daily Pakistan Governor Salmaan Taseer said that had he known that a member of Sipah Sahaba was in the same vehicle he was travelling in and had he known that he was addressing the same gathering he was addressing he would have slapped him and thrown him out of the meeting.
Target Nazir Naji
Writing in Jang, columnist Nazir Naji stated that he received a death threat once and requested the police to trace the man who had arranged to get him killed. The police found the man responsible was an imam masjid of Multan who confessed that he had planned to kill Nazir Naji on reading his columns. Naji further revealed that his latest death threats included Islamic scholar Javed Ghamidi and himself as targets of assassination.
Punjab lady MPAs exchange curses
According to Jinnah two lady MPAs in the Punjab Assembly exchanged hot words during a committee meeting and came out quarrelling and had to be provided security against exchange of blows. One Fauzia Behram called Samia Amjad ghatiya' in Urdu who shot back with shut up' in English.
Barber repents in Bhakkar
Reported in weekly Al Qalam a barber of the sectarian conflict prone city of Bhakkar in Punjab repented and gave up shaving people's beards. Barber Hakim was persuaded by the greatly humanitarian Al Rehmat Trust organisation to give up the sinful occupation of shaving beards. He presented himself at a local mosque and confessed that shaitan (satan) and nafs (selfishness) had deceived him into sin which he was now giving up.
Deobandi versus Barelvi in Faisalabad
Writing in jihadi publication Zarb-e-Momin Deobandi religious leader Qari Muhammad Jalundhari stated that on 12 Rabiul Awwwal the Birthday of the Prophet PBUH was celebrated in Faisalabad by Barelvi followers. When the procession reached the tomb of Deobandi dignitary Maulana Ziaul Qasimi they became violent and destroyed the library of the great man. He said there was a conspiracy afoot to rake up the old Barelvi-Deobandi vendetta and make the two fight again.
Conspiracies against Pakistan
Weekly Al Qalam reported from Islamabad that Raw, CIA and Mossad had decided to work together to deprive Pakistan of its water and turn it into registan (desert). It also reported from Islamabad that an international plot was ready to destabilise Pakistan. RAW together with CIA and Mossad had set up training camps for terrorists inside India who would be unleashed on Pakistan. For this, notorious criminals from all over the world were being scouted and inducted.
Sipah Sahaba is not terrorist!
Daily Islam reported that Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi the chief of the UN-banned Sipah Sahaba now renamed Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat said that his party should not be called terrorist as saying so would be contempt of court. He said a case in this regard was sub judice at the High Court. He said the PPP candidate in Haroonabad was supported by his party and this support was announced by member Javed Iqbal in the presence of Governor Salmaan Taseer.
Who was Maulana Jalalpuri?
Daily newspaper Islam reported that head of the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat organisation in Karachi great scholar Maulana Jalalpuri was gunned down along with his companions. He was famous for his diatribes against the Qadianis and his janaza prayer was said at Banuri Mosque. The paper reported that he was a celebrated pupil of Maulana Yusuf Ludhianvi who was also killed in sectarian conflict. The head of Banuri Madrassa Mufti Shamzai was also thus killed in 2004. Earlier great scholar Maulana Ghafur Nadim of Sipah Sahaba was wounded by attackers in Karachi but his son Muawiya, provocatively named from the point of the view of the Shia community, was killed.
Posted by: john frum ||
05/01/2010 14:28 ||
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The Punjab lady MPA's were hardly trying. I think you might have a long way to go in Urdu to get to the serious insults.
The US Embassy in India has warned of possible "imminent attacks" by militants in the capital, Delhi, and advised US citizens to be vigilant.
"There are increased indications that terrorists are planning imminent attacks in New Delhi," said a statement on the embassy's website.
It urged people to avoid several locations popular with Westerners.
Militants linked to Pakistan-based Islamist groups have been blamed for previous attacks in the city.
The advisory, which steps up a warning issued last month, said that popular shopping areas such as Chandni Chowk, Connaught Place, Greater Kailash, Karol Bagh, Mehrauli, and Sarojini Nagar, should be avoided.
It said US citizens travelling or living in India should maintain "a high level of vigilance", and be aware of their surroundings or any unattended packages.
So gather up ye aid, brothers and sisters, and give til it hurts. The UN apparatchiks people of Swat need their white Toyota Land Cruisers ...
The United Nations refugee agency says thousands of people who have returned to the homes they fled last year from Pakistan's Swat Valley are still struggling to rebuild their lives. Next week will mark the first anniversary of the fighting between the Pakistan government and Taliban militants, which resulted in more than two million people fleeing their homes.
The U.N. refugee agency says the intense fighting that erupted nearly one year ago between the Pakistani government and Taliban militants in the Swat Valley triggered one of the largest and fastest developing displacements it has ever seen.
While the fighting was particularly fierce, it was short lived. And, on July 13, 2009, the Pakistani government began a program to help the internally displaced people return to the homes they had fled. The government estimates 80 to 90 percent of the more than two million people who were affected have returned to their home areas.
While the Swat Valley remains relatively stable, UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic says many of those who have returned home are having difficulty in resuming a normal life.
"Today, Swat's capital Mingora is once again a bustling town, but the human cost of the conflict is still being felt there and across the Swat Valley," said Mahecic. "UNHCR and its NGO partners are helping some of the most vulnerable returnees by building shelters for civilians whose homes and other property has been lost. In Swat, Buner and Lower Dir, we are working with partners to build more than 12,000 shelters for families whose houses were badly damaged or destroyed. Typically, these people live in small rural villages and were already very poor."
Mahecic says the UNHCR and its partners have set up 15 welfare centers in Swat and Lower Dir where psychologists continue to counsel people suffering from trauma. He says more than 30,000 vulnerable people have been helped since November.
While a dramatic number of people have returned home, Mahecic says the displacement crisis in northwest Pakistan is not over. He says some 1.3 million people from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas remain displaced.
He says the region remains volatile. He says people are still fleeing the conflict areas to escape the sporadic operations launched by the security forces against the militants in the tribal belt.
"In April alone, some 85,000 people have been newly registered by the local officials," he said. "They fled from Kurram and Orakzai Registration was later suspended following an attack on the registration point in Kohat on 17 April. Today, UNHCR in Pakistan faces a complex humanitarian operation on several fronts. In addition to helping people rebuild lives and homes in return areas, new IDPs from Kurram and Orakzai need to be registered and given emergency relief. The longer term displaced still are also in need of care."
Mahecic says more than 130,000 people live in nine camps, which have to be maintained or consolidated. He says new return operations to other areas in the tribal belt are underway.
He says a lot of money will be needed to make their return sustainable. So far, he notes the UNHCR only has received $35 million of the $176 million it needs to carry out its humanitarian operations in northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley this year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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I'm not sure that paying psychologists to work at "welfare centers"and counsel the displaced is the best use of $176 million...
Posted by: American Delight ||
05/01/2010 4:08 Comments ||
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GENEVA: Lack of funds is threatening aid programmes providing housing, food and health care to hundreds of thousands of people in some of the most tense areas of the country, the United Nations said on Friday. Perhaps if Zardari put his ten percent back into the pot ...
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said UN agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) faced a serious shortage of funds jeopardising basic life-saving activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. The two regions are a focus of the government's efforts to battle al Qaeda and Taliban in support of the US-led war in Afghanistan.
It's a really big funding problem for Pakistan and it has consequences new programmes cannot be launched and existing programmes are already being cut back for lack of money,' OCHA spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told a briefing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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Maybe Pakistan should buy less French Submarines, Swedish AWACS and Chinese Warplanes?
Posted by: john frum ||
05/01/2010 20:11 Comments ||
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Everything fuels Indo-Pak tensions ...
GUJRAT: A bitter dispute over limited water resources is fuelling India-Pakistan tensions at a time when the neighbours are trying to rebuild trust and resume peace talks.
Trust won't be rebuilt until the Mumbai murders have been resolved.
It's a long-running feud that has worsened in recent months as a dry spell focuses attention on Pakistan's growing water shortage. Three days of talks in March ended with both sides trading barbs and failing to reach a resolution.
The issue was raised on Thursday when the leaders of the two countries met at a regional summit in Bhutan and agreed on the need to normalise relations, the Pakistani side said.
Further complicating the situation, extremists are trying to capitalise on allegations that India is stealing water from glacier-fed rivers that start in Kashmir. Independent experts say there is no evidence to support those charges, but they warn that Pakistan's concerns about India's plans to build at least 15 new dams need to be addressed to avoid conflict.
"If you want to give Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and other Pakistani terrorists an issue that really rallies people, give them water," said John Briscoe, who has worked on water issues in the two countries for 35 years and was the World Bank's senior water adviser. Farmers in the country's central breadbasket are certainly angry. "India has blocked our water because they are our enemy," said Mohammad, a 65-year-old farmer in Gujrat.
Indian officials blame any reduction on natural variation and climate change, which have hurt India as well. They add that Pakistan's antiquated irrigation system wastes large quantities of water. "Preposterous and completely unwarranted allegations of stealing water and waging a water war are being made against India," Indian Ambassador to Pakistan Sharat Sabharwal said in a speech in April.
"The issues of Kashmir and terrorism are going to be much more difficult if we don't have an agreement on water," Briscoe said.
Indus water commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah does not accuse India of stealing water, but he says India is not providing information required under the 1960 pact to prove that it is not. India denies any intention to cut off water to Pakistan and maintains that it has complied with the treaty. But as with other issues between the two countries, mistrust runs high.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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Wait till China channels water to Pakistan from the giant dams they are building on the Himalayan headwaters. Water that would otherwise flow into India.
#2
Must be a pleasant change from fighting over religion and whether India has besmirched whatever part of the Pakistani national honor that wasn't already pre-smirched.
#3
Under the IWT, India gave all the water from 3 rivers to Pakistan. No other upper riparian state has done that.
The IWT is not just a treaty between India and Pakistan. It was negotiated by Robert McNamara and the World Bank is a signatory and guarantor of the treaty. Neutral experts and arbitration courts can be invoked.
None have ruled for Pakistan.
Pakistan is trying to prevent India from exercising its rights under the treaty (by building power projects) because Pakistan itself cannot afford to build power projects.
Posted by: john frum ||
05/01/2010 12:27 Comments ||
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Also, under the IWT, Pakistan gets 4 times the water that India does, even though Pakistan has a much smaller population.
Pakistan may regret bringing up the water issue. If India renegotiates the treaty, Pakistan will find them far less generous today than Nehru was in the 60s.
Posted by: john frum ||
05/01/2010 12:29 Comments ||
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Water that would otherwise flow into India
The drainage basins for those rivers lie mostly in India. They also flow to Bangladesh.
So while water flow would be cut slightly, guess who loses in the end?
Posted by: john frum ||
05/01/2010 12:30 Comments ||
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#7
the Zangmu hydroelectric project on the Yarlung River Zangbo. The project itself is a source of tensions with India, which is concerned that the damming the river, known as the Brahmaputra in India, could harm downstream flows in one of Asia's most economically vital waterways.
The Zangmu Dam is the first of five planned for the 100-kilometre Jiacha Canyon (pictured), which is southeast of Tibets capital of Lhasa. However, geologists have said that the area is prone to earthquakes.
Iraq's foreign minister chided the U.S. and Britain for not taking an active role in resolving his country's bitter election dispute, and accused Washington of being more concerned with sending home U.S. soldiers.
Posted by: ed ||
05/01/2010 15:32 ||
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It's called "republican democracy", my man. And you had better get used to it.
#3
Where are they going to fight, Bangladesh? I don't know of any tropical swamps in Iran. Those suits would boil whomever was in them in about 30 minutes in the desert. I've worn OUR chem suits for 14 hours, and that's pretty debilitating. Those things would roast a body to a turn.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/01/2010 16:00 Comments ||
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#4
Actually there is a very large marsh/swamp network in Iraq - the Tigris-Euphrates marshlands. The Marsh Arabs tend towards Shia in belief and have fought the Baghdad Arabs for centuries. Saddam was draining those swamps and turning them into desert to rid himself of the Marsh Arabs when we overthrew him, and liberated Iraq.
International investigators working for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) have questioned Hezbollah witnesses in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, local daily Assafir said Friday. The newspaper quoted sources working with the tribunal as saying that the questioning by an investigation team from STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare's office took place earlier this week.
Sources at the STL declined to give any details, but officials at the United Nations in New York told Assafir that the questioning of the Lebanese Shiite armed group witnesses was only technical. Other sources that spoke on condition of anonymity hailed the responsive approach of the Lebanese government and Hezbollah, describing outcome of investigator's work as "positive."
Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said in March that the STL contacted several people who have close ties with Hezbollah and requested they appear before judicial authorities. He added that their number reached 12 comprising Hezbollah members and non-members, saying that the STL is to summon six more people.
The German weekly Der Spiegel reported in May 2009 that the UN commission probing the murder of Hariri had new evidence that Hezbollah "planned and executed" the Beirut suicide bombing.
A top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Tehran will never trust the West with its nuclear fuel. Ali Akbar Velayati told the state-run IRNA news agency that efforts to require Iran to send its nuclear fuel to the West to be enriched is proof of their evil intentions. The West might get Juice cooties on their precious uranium, and the djinns won't ever set off a big kaboom if it has Juice cooties ...
Earlier this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki expressed hope a fuel-swap deal backed by the United Nations could "create multilateral trust."
The proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency calls for Iran to send its uranium to Russia for enrichment. It would then be sent to France, converted into fuel rods and sent back to Iran to power a nuclear reactor. The proposal is aimed at curbing Iran's ability to enrich its own uranium to weapons-grade level.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON The Obama administration warned Iran and Syria on Thursday that America's commitment to Israel's security is unshakable, and they should understand the consequences of threats to the Jewish state. In a speech, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Syrian transfers of increasingly sophisticated weaponry including rockets to militants in southern Lebanon and Gaza could spark new conflict in the Middle East. She added that a nuclear-armed Iran would profoundly destabilize the region.
These threats to Israel's security are real, they are growing, and they must be addressed,' she said in the speech to the American Jewish Committee. The speech was the administration's latest effort to reassure Israel that its ties to the United States remain strong despite tensions that flared last month. Which no one believes given the way Bambi has treated Israel this past year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Translation "With Bibi we cannot guarantee stoping Israel before it does you some real damage."
#2
Iran bites back: Tehran warns Israel against attack on Syria as arms tension mounts Iran has pledged to "cut off Israel's feet" if it attacks Syria, fuelling tensions over one of the Middle East's most combustible flashpoints after the US publicly warned Damascus not to risk starting a war.
Mohammad Rida Rahimi, the Iranian vice-president, made the statement today at the end of a visit to Syria that was billed as underlining the strategic relationship between the two countries.
"We will stand alongside Syria against any [Israeli] threat," Rahimi said at a news conference with the Syrian prime minister, Mohammad Naji Otri. "If those who have violated Palestinian land try anything, we will cut off their feet," he promised.
The sabre-rattling followed a spate of US statements accusing Damascus and Tehran of arming the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah with sophisticated weapons that could threaten Israel.
been listening to Obama's riffs on evil doctors, huh? We'll know for sure when they threaten the Juice's tonsils
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/01/2010 10:17 Comments ||
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#4
Israel is building up its deep water navy--two advanced corvettes and two--negotiating for a total of nine--Dolphin-class attack submarines. Looks like some of this will be ready by 2012. In time to blast the 12 imam out of his turban.
#5
Israel already has three Dolphin submarines, at least 150-200 nuclear warheads, the ability to design/mate nuclear warheads to both cruise missiles and long-range tactical and strategic missiles, and has been researching solid-rocket missile engines since at least the early 1970's. At least two of the Dolphin submarines are suspected of having 650mm torpedo tubes capable of housing long-range supersonic cruise missiles, and one is suspected of being ALWAYS on patrol somewhere in the Indian Ocean (source). If Iran does something stupid, the sun could rise there at midnight.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/01/2010 16:26 Comments ||
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DAMASCUS - Iran will cut off Israel's feet' if the Jewish state attacks Damascus, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Rida Rahimi vowed on Friday at the end of a two-day visit to key regional ally Syria.
We will stand alongside Syria against any (Israeli) threat,' Rahimi said at a news conference with Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri. If those who have violated Palestinian land want to try anything we will cut off their feet,' he said in reference to the Jewish state. Must have some Paleo blood in him ...
Rahimi described Syria as a strong country that is ready to confront any threat' and pledged that Tehran will back Syria with all its means and strength.'
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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Ding Ding Ding, let's get ready to ruuummmmmbbbble. World War 4 is steadily approaching.
BEIRUT - Hezbollah on Friday slammed interference' in Lebanese affairs by UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen and warned that its arsenal was off-limits after the diplomat accused militias of creating tension in Lebanon. They really don't like it when a UN official points out the obvious ...
Hezbollah condemns this attempt to create dissent and sedition among the Lebanese under the guise of advice and guidance,' the Shiite militant party said in a statement. Roed-Larsen's continuous attempts to interfere in Lebanese affairs and incite the Lebanese to fight one another are unacceptable for an international official working for peace in the region,' it said.
On Thursday the UN envoy had warned of the need to address the presence in Lebanon of heavily armed militias, which he said was a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, adopted in 2004. The resolution calls for the disbanding and disarmament' of all militias in the country.
As long as these unresolved issues are there, for instance the existence of heavily armed militias in Lebanon... there will always be tension,' Roed-Larsen said after briefing the Security Council on a report on the implementation of Resolution 1559.
But the Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah warned that its arms were only to be discussed among the Lebanese as part of a comprehensive national defence strategy, and neither Roed-Larsen nor any other officials, international or not, can interfere.'
Hezbollah is the only Lebanese group that did not disarm after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, arguing that its weapons were necessary to fight Israel.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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A Pinal County Sheriff's deputy was shot in the stomach Friday after a traffic stop on Interstate 8, according sheriff's officials.
Authorities said the deputy was shot by a suspected undocumented immigrant and at least two suspects were being sought.
The deputy apparently pulled over a vehicle on Interstate 8 near Arizona 84 at about 4:30 p.m. Friday.
When the deputy approached the vehicle, he was shot in the stomach, said Lt. Tamatha Villar, spokesperson for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. He radioed dispatch to say he had been shot but could not be found when authorities arrived at the scene.
The deputy was located more than an hour later and taken to the Casa Grande Medical Center for treatment. His condition was not available.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office dispatched a helicopter and members of its SWAT team to Pinal County to assist in the case, said MCSO Lt. Brian Lee. Lee said at 5:45 p.m. there were reports over the police scanner that suspects were shooting at a police helicopter. Lee did not know which agency was operating the helicopter.
The Border Patrol has sent agents to assist the Pinal County Sheriff's Office with the investigation, said Mario Escalante, a Border Patrol spokesman assigned to the Tucson sector. Moose posted at about the same time and added this: Pinal County is just southeast of Maricopa County, and home to a major State max prison at Florence. They don't play games there. Update at 0915 CT: Great comment from a reader who writes to Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit:
Our retirement home is in AZ Cityright next to Casa Grande. This incident' occurred in the vicinity of Hwy's 8 & 84less then 10 miles from our house. We were there over the weekend returning Tuesday. Monday nightwhile driving on Hwy 10-we saw several police in hot pursuit-and they ended up surrounding a house in our development less then a half mile from our house. So, all I have to say about all those idiot libs, Hollywood dopes, etc, etc what about our US rights? Who is going to protect us from this violence? How can we ever relax in our retirement home? Will our property value ever recover given our house is located in this major smuggling/mayhem war zone? Maybe the government should buy our property to house the border patrol and/or national guard? Anybody who objects to us wanting our protection under US law ought to put some of their own lives or property on the line. Or, let them start a fund to buy back our property.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
On the contrary, I hear football is the city's favorite sport.
#3
Are there going to be protests against this shooting of the deputy by this illegal who was trying to smuggle dope into our country? Will any of the sponsors of today's protest against the AZ law protest this shooting?
Waiting to hear from any of: National Immigrant Solidarity Network [coalition of immigrant rights, labor, human rights, religious, and student activist organizations from across the country, immigration lawyers], SEIU is also listed as a partner, and International Workers Day marchers (the communists I'm guessing). I cannot hear you!
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Prince Harry could fly Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan, it emerged yesterday, after it was announced that he had passed his army pilot's course.
A group of Republican senators wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday, urging them to deny Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entry into the U.S. next week.
A Pinal County Sheriff's deputy was shot in the stomach Friday after a traffic stop on Interstate 8, according sheriff's officials.
